Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli at Uffizi Gallery in Florence Share The Birth of Venus by Botticelli The Birth of Venus is undoubtedly one of the world’s most famous and appreciated works of art. Painted by Sandro Botticelli between 1482 and 1485, it has become a landmark of XV century Italian painting, so rich in meaning and allegorical references to antiquity. The theme comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a very important oeuvre of the Latin literature. Venus is portrayed naked on a shell on the seashore; on her left the winds blow gently caressing her hair with a shower of roses, on her right a handmaid (Ora) waits for the goddess to go closer to dress her shy body. The meadow is sprinkled with violets, symbol of modesty but often used for love potions. We can find clear references to the “Stanzas”, a famous poetic work by Agnolo Poliziano, a contemporary of Botticelli and the greatest Neoplatonic poet of the Medici court. Neoplatonism was a current of thought that tried to connect the Greek and Roman cultural heritage with Christianity.

The Neoplatonic philosophical meaning is then clear: the work would mean the birth of love and the spiritual beauty as a driving force of life. The iconography of Venus is certainly derived from the classic theme of Venus Pudica, covering her private parts shyly. In Florence, another important work of art is the translation in sculpture of the same theme: the famous Medici Venus at the Uffizi Gallery. The Medici commissioned the Birth of Venus, including the works Pallas and the Centaur and the Allegory of Spring at the Uffizi, and these belonged to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, a cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent. As Poliziano was a great poet of written verses, so Botticelli was one of the greatest poets of the line and the drawing. It is worth to mention the exceptional technique and the fine materials used to accomplish the work. The Birth of Venus is the first example in Tuscany of a painting on canvas. Moreover the special use of expensive alabaster powder, making the colors even brighter and timeless, is another characteristic that makes this work unique.

Behind the interpretation of the painting as a tribute to classic literature, we can certainly read an ode to the wealthy Florentine family who commissioned the work: the beginning of the reign of love finally comes to Florence thanks to the Medici, their diplomatic skills and their vast culture. This way Sandro Botticelli gives the art history one of its most sublime masterpieces. Rooms 10-14 are dedicated to works by Botticelli; you’ll also find his famous Allegory of Spring , or Primavera, in this large room. About Uffizi.org Uffizi.org is a guide written by a team of locals that love Florence and Art! We are not the official site (you can find it at uffizi.beniculturali.it ) nor do we have a direct connection to the Uffizi Gallery museum. Tickets and Tours are sold through third-party travel agencies. How to Book Wide availability of dates for Tickets and Tours Customer service by native English-speaking team Trusted booking partners to ensure high quality service The birth of Venus - Google Arts & Culture The birth of Venus Uffizi Gallery The painting was commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’Medici, a cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

The theme was probably suggested by the humanist Poliziano. It depicts Venus born from the sea foam, blown by the west wind, Zephyr, and the nymph, Chloris, towards one of the Horai, who prepares to dress her with a flowered mantle. This universal icon of Western painting was probably painted around 1484 for the villa of Castello owned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de 'Medici. Giorgio Vasari saw the work there in the mid-sixteenth century – along with Botticelli ’s other well-known Primavera – and described it precisely as "showing the Birth of Venus." The old idea that the two Botticelli masterpieces were created for the same occasion, in spite of their substantial technical and stylistic diversity, is no longer accepted. However, rather than a birth, what we see is the goddess landing on the shore of her homeland, the island of Cyprus, or on Kithera. The theme, which can be traced back to Homer and to Ovid’s Metamophoses, was also celebrated by the great humanist Agnolo Poliziano in the poetic verses of his Stanze.

The Venus of the Uffizi is of the “Venus pudica” type, whose right breast is covered by her right hand and billowing long blond hair partially shrouds her body. The goddess stands upright on a shell as she is driven towards the shore by the breeze of Zephyrus, a wind god, who is holding the nymph, Chloris. On the right is the Hora of springtime, who waits to greet Venus ashore with a cloak covered in pink flowers . The seascape, stunning for its metaphysical tone and almost unreal quality, is illuminated by a very soft, delicate light. Like Botticelli’s other masterpiece, Pallas and the Centaur, the Birth of Venus is painted on canvas - fairly unusual for its time - using a technique of thin tempera , based on the use of diluted egg yolk, which lends itself particularly well to give the painting that aspect of extraordinary transparency, which brings to mind the pictorial quality of a fresco. The figure recalls classical sculpture and is very similar to the famous Medici Venus found in the Uffizi, which the artist certainly knew.

The real meaning of this dreamlike vision is still under scholarly debate and investigation but is undoubtedly linked with the Neo-Platonic philosophy, widely cultivated in the Medici court. Like the Primavera, the Birth of Venus is also associated with the concept of Humanitas,or virtuous Humanity, a theory developed by Marsilio Ficino in a letter to the young Lorenzo. According to the interpretation by Ernst Gombrich, the work depicts the symbolic fusion of Spirit and Matter, the harmonious interaction of Idea and Nature. Nevertheless, the interpretations of this painting of extraordinary visual impact are numerous and diverse. The divine ethereal figure has been viewed as an allegorical representation of Humanitas upon her arrival to Florence, while the nymph holding out the cloak of flowers for the goddess may perhaps be identified as Flora, the same depicted in this masterpiece’s “twin”, the Primavera, where she may be seen instead as the personification of the city of Florence. From this work emerges clear evidence of Botticell’s strive to reach perfection of form that could rival with classical antiquity.

It is for this reason that the humanist Ugolino Verino in his work Epigrammata, presented in 1485 to the King of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus, likened the Florentine painter to the legendary Apelles of Ancient Greece. Read more Birth of Venus tapestry - Botticelli wall art Birth of Venus tapestry Tapestries Array ( [Product] => Array ( [id] => 408 [created] => [modified] => 2016-11-09 13:34:59 [published] => 1 [begin_publishing] => 2012-08-06 16:56:00 [end_publishing] => [name] => Birth of Venus tapestry [slug] => birth-of-venus-tapestry [description] => The Birth of Venus tapestry is from the 1486 Sandro Botticelli painting commissioned by the Medici family which now hangs in the wonderful Uffizi Gallery, Florence (my favourite art gallery!).It shows the goddess Venus rising out of the sea on a shell, blown to the shore by the winds.

The tapestry is woven in Italy from cotton and viscose. It is lined, with a rod pocket for hanging (we enclose instructions for this with each order). [price] => 435 [product_number] => s500 [count] => 0 [weight] => 0.00 [additional_shipping] => 0.00 [handling] => 0.00 [height] => 0.00 [width] => 0.00 [depth] => 0.00 [featured] => 0 [featured_category] => [meta_title] => Birth of Venus tapestry - Botticelli wall art [meta_keywords] => birth of venus, tapestries, wall hangings, birth of venus tapestry, botticello tapestries, italian tapestries [meta_description] => The Birth of Venus tapestry is from the Sandro Botticelli painting which now hangs in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. It is one of our art tapestries woven in Italy.

[id_old] => s500 [code] => s500-s [in_yshopping] => Yes [size] => 25" x 36" [sale_price] => 0.00 [wholesaler_name] => [wholesaler_url] => [classification] => new [orderable] => Yes [wholesaler_price] => [image_url] => [size_options] => 1 [taxable] => Yes [ship_weight] => 0 [yahoo_shopping_category] => Home and Garden [caption] => The Birth of Venus tapest [condition] => New [sizedescription] => This is available in one size only.

[merchant_category] => Tapestries & Wall Hanging [category] => [material] => Cotton/viscose tapestry weave [product_url] => [supplier] => [country] => [options_longdesc] => [wholesaler_code] => [product_price_count] => 0 [rank] => 0 [featured_description] => [raw_price] => 435.00 ) [Image] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 1383 [model] => Product [foreign_key] => 408 [dirname] => img [basename] => 408.jpg [checksum] => [alternative] => Birth of Venus tapestry [group] => Image [created] => 2012-06-18 11:50:36 [modified] => 2016-11-09 13:35:01 [rank] => 1 [begin_publishing] => 2012-06-18 11:50:36 [end_publishing] => [published] => 1 ) ) [Document] => Array ( ) [ExtraField

] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 258 [foreign_key] => 408 [key] => featured_description [val] => [type] => string [foreign_model] => Product ) [1] => Array ( [id] => 797 [foreign_key] => 408 [key] => raw_price [val] => 435.00 [type] => string [foreign_model] => Product ) ) [ProductPrice] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 9975 [product_id] => 408 [price] => 90.00 [details] => 25"x36" ) [1] => Array ( [id] => 9976 [product_id] => 408 [price] => 170.00 [details] => 39"x55" ) ) [ProductCategory] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 32 [name] => Old Masters [description] => Old Masters art tapestries Old Masters art tapestries - portraits and landscapes from artists like Vermeer, Bott

icelli, Goya, Canaletto and da Vinci: masters indeed!

These are now available as tapestry wall-hangings. Click on the tapestry images or their titles to see a larger image, a description, available sizes/prices, and the means to order securely online. We provide free shipping to North America, and worldwide shipping mostly for just $19 or $29. [rank] => 1 [created] => 2012-06-06 13:49:07 [modified] => 2016-06-13 16:19:30 [slug] => old-masters [lft] => 35 [rght] => 36 [parent_id] => 30 [published] => 0 [begin_publishing] => [end_publishing] => [meta_title] => Old Masters art tapestries - tapestry wall-hangings [meta_keywords] => Old Masters art, Old Masters art tapestries, The Tapestry House, tapestries, tapestry wall hangings, art tapestries [meta_description] => Old Masters art tapestries. An extensive selection of Old Masters art tapestry wall hangings woven in France, Belgium, Italy.

[ProductsProductCategory] => Array ( [id] => 6668 [product_id] => 408 [product_category_id] => 32 [rank] => 12 ) ) ) ) The Birth of Venus tapestry is from the 1486 Sandro Botticelli painting commissioned by the Medici family which now hangs in the wonderful Uffizi Gallery, Florence (my favourite art gallery!).It shows the goddess Venus rising out of the sea on a shell, blown to the shore by the winds. The tapestry is woven in Italy from cotton and viscose. It is lined, with a rod pocket for hanging (we enclose instructions for this with each order). Product Code: s500 We ship worldwide. You have two shipping options, standard or express. Shipping tapestries to USA and Canada. Standard shipping is FREE to USA and Canada. Express shipping to Canada and USA.

Order value: up to $150 express shipping cost is $15 $151 - $350 cost is $20 $351 - $650 cost is $25 $651 - $1,000 cost is $30 $1,001 - $1,500 cost is $35 $1,501 - $2,500 cost is $80 (courier) Over $2,500 cost is $100 (courier) Shipping tapestries to the rest of the world Standard shipping to the rest of the world Order value: up to $150 shipping cost is $19 $151 - $1,500 cost is $29 Over $1,500 cost is $95 (courier) Express shipping to the rest of the world - please ask us for a quote since the cost varies depending on the weight and value of your tapestry order and your location.

Approximate tapestry delivery times 11075 Salal Place, North Saanich Victoria, BC The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli – Facts about the Painting Complete Works More than 500 years after its creation, The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli is one of the most iconic paintings ever produced, and remains among the most renowned and priceless masterpieces in the world. Painted in 1486, The Birth of Venus has been the subject of endless intellectual speculation and interpretations of meaning. The painting depicts a voluptuous nude female standing gracefully upon a large seashell which appears to emerge onto shore from the ocean. To her left is a male angel floating in the air and clutching a woman in a tight embrace. To the right of the Venus is another woman in flowing garments, appearing to hail the arrival of the “goddess.” The Meaning Behind the Painting It’s a gorgeous vision, certainly, and stunning to behold. But art critics and historians can’t help but ponder the greater meaning behind The Birth of Venus. Perhaps the most dominant view is that the painting was inspired by Neoplatonic thought.

This latter body of philosophy was a revival and slight reinterpretation of the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. In the Middle Ages, intellectuals across Europe were rediscovering the works of the ancient Greeks with great enthusiasm after the long oppression of the Dark Ages. They were also applying their own meanings to what the Greek masters were talking about. Artists such as Botticelli were inspired by this and also Greek mythology. This was a break from the long dominance of art based on Christian themes and the dogma of the Catholic Church. Physical Beauty and Intellectual Love According to Neoplatonism, great physical beauty was a direct springboard to spiritual beauty and intellectual love. The stunning Venus perched on a half-shell is a ravishing beauty with lengthy locks of luxurious reddish-blonde hair. Her skin is pale and her stance is rather demure. Her head is tilted coquettishly. She shyly covers her genitals with a flourish of her tresses. Her right hand is poised at her breasts. Those who viewed the painting in the 15th Century may have had their minds lifted to the ideal of Plato’s higher forms of love, as prompted by the physical beauty of the female body.

Inspired by Lorenzo de Medici Over the years, many have offered other views, and some have even questioned the predominance of Neoplatonic thought as being influential on the scene of late 1400s Italy. Thus, others have suggested that the painting is about Lorenzo de’ Medici, the man who commissioned the painting. The images of the painting are purported to be a symbolic reflection of de Medici’s virtues. Lorenzo de’ Medici was a powerful and extremely wealthy Italian statesman. In effect, he was the ruler of the Florentine Republic. The Medici family itself had gained great wealth in their era as bankers and captains of industry. They controlled just about every aspect of local society through their monopoly on the monetary system. Lorenzo de’ Medici was an extreme lover of the arts, and contributed huge portions of his great wealth toward commissioning paintings by the greatest artistic masters of the day, one of whom was Botticelli. Botticelli’s Biography Botticelli’s full name was Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, but he was commonly known as Sandro.

His work is assigned to the “Florentine school” and he is known for the “linear grace” of his work. He was born around 1445 and achieved his peak in the decade of 1480s when he produced The Birth of Venus, and another masterpiece, Primavera. By 1502, Botticelli’s skill, career and talent was considered to have faded, his best years well behind him. However, with works such as The Birth of Venus under his name, Botticelli had gained an enduring reputation as one of the great masters of the “Golden Age” of Renaissance painting. Although his works fell out of favor among art experts in the 19th Century, Botticelli has never really lost his position as a timeless genius. It should be noted that the interpretation of The Birth of Venus as extolling the virtues of Lorenzo de’ Medici is not widely accepted. That the painting was inspired by Plato simply makes more sense. The images in the painting lend themselves much more readily to a Neoplatonic view.

As we all know, he meaning of art is ultimately in the eye of the beholder, and the greatest works invite multiple interpretations – with none of them necessarily being completely right or wrong. Today, The Birth of Venus is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. 6 responses to “The Birth of Venus” kiran Botticelli Birth of Venus - Uffizi Gallery - Your Contact in Florence Your Contact in Florence Helping you to plan your holiday in Florence Main navigation Botticelli Birth of Venus – Uffizi Gallery November 10, 2014 Uffizi Gallery Guided Tours Botticelli Birth of Venus Botticelli birth of Venus is one of the symbols of Florence Italy Renaissance. Sandro Botticelli created this painting for the Medici family , which hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence Italy, before 1485. Giorgio Vasari wrote about it in his Vite, the first form of an encyclopedia of art.

The order for this painting came probably from Lorenzo de Medici , the destination for The Birth of Venus probably was Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici’s Villa di Castello: it was ordered to be a painting staying inside the villa as a private piece of art. This is not sure, however. Because the scene that is shown on the painting does not represent what the title suggests there is a great deal of controversy amongst art critics (who else?). The birth of Venus? <br /> The title, The Birth of Venus, suggests the painting displays the rise of an adult woman, Venus, rising from the sepiolite, as described in the old Greek mythology. The painting clearly does not display Venus rising from sepiolite but from a shell, showing her arrival at Paphos, Cyprus. This is why some critics suggest that the painting called The Birth of Venus as described by Vasari is not actually this painting at all but a different painting by Botticelli, which was lost in history.

The painting we now know as The Birth of Venus could have been a painting Botticelli painted for Giuliano di Piero de’ Medici , portraying his beloved Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci, with the shell representing the female body. This painting would have had a different name than what we now give it. Fact is that The Birth of Venus by Botticelli is one of the most famous and stunningly beautiful pieces of renaissance art, painted by one of the most talented painters of the renaissance. In this video The Birth of Venus is adored and commented on by art experts: Birth of Venus by Botticelli in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence Leave a comment Works of Art By Florence Inferno The Birth of Venus is perhaps the most famous painting by Botticelli . It is a symbol of Florence, along with Michelangelo’s David, the Palazzo Vecchio , and a few other places and works of art. This painting, probably dating from around 1483, was located in the Medici Villa of Castello during the middle of the sixteenth century. Now it is displayed in the Uffizi Museum in Florence.

Few people know that the title of this work dates from the nineteenth century from a wrong interpretation of its meaning. In fact, the myth of the birth of Venus was often chosen as a subject in antiquity, but in this work Botticelli wanted to represent not the birth of the goddess but her landing on the island of Cythera or perhaps Cyprus. In the painting are elements of Greek and Roman iconography, but it is also a very modern work for its time: for example, it is painted on canvas, not commonly used at that time. The winds that push Venus onto shore are Zephyr and Aura, and the girl who receives her is one of the Three Graces or the Hours. Along with the famous Allegory of Spring, this painting is from the most serene and graceful period for Botticelli, who often suffered from melancholy and perhaps depression. During this period, he was interested in Neo-Platonic philosophy, which was popular at the time, a philosophy that focused on the perfect fusion of Spirit and Matter, Ideas and Nature.

The Birth of Venus, however, has bright colors that the Allegory of Spring does not have: it is painted with a mixture of egg yolk and light paint that makes it look like a fresco. Some naturalistic details are decorated with gold. Other works of Botticelli, such as his famous Map of Hell , are very dark and gloomy and belong to a different phase of his artistic production. The Map of Hell is one of the parchments that Botticelli designed to illustrate an edition of The Divine Comedy by Dante. Botticelli’s illustrations for Dante’s work are now preserved in Berlin and in the Vatican Library in Rome. Sandro Botticelli was born in Florence in 1445 and became one of the most important painters of the Renaissance, although he was forgotten for a time—only to be rediscovered at the beginning of the twentieth century. His real name was Sandro Filipepi, and perhaps his nickname “Botticelli” comes from his as “Battigello” (one who beats the gold) that he did in the workshops of his teachers (including Filippo Lippi).

The Medici commissioned Botticelli to paint some of his most famous works, which increased his fame, including the Allegory of Spring. The famous Adoration of the Magi hides a surprise that shocked the audience of the time: many real characters of Florence are depicted, including the same Botticelli! Botticelli was also famous in Rome, where he worked for the pope. As an adult, he was very impressed by the sermons of Savonarola in Florence and is said to have even destroyed some of his paintings that had pagan subjects. His reputation was so significant that in 1504 he became a member of a committee in charge of selecting the location of Michelangelo’s David in Florence. He suggested that it be placed on the front steps of the Duomo. In Florence, one of Botticelli’s neighbors was the Vespucci family. Italian explorer and navigator Amerigo Vespucci, who gave his name to the American continent, was five years younger than Sandro Botticelli and commissioned some of his works. Botticelli died in Florence in 1510.

Giorgio Vasari , who was the first Western art historian and deeply influenced later scholars, criticized Botticelli’s work, and the success of Michelangelo and Leonardo overshadowed his artistic value. Even today, some of his works are famous, but many others have an uncertain attribution. Pictures by Wikipedia The Birth of Venus - Botticelli. Painting is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The Birth of Venus The Birth of Venus - Botticelli The Birth of Venus - Botticelli The Birth of Venus is a painting by Sandro Botticelli. It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a full grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore (which is related to the Venus Anadyomene motif). The painting is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. In Leonardo's treatise on painting only one contemporary is mentioned by name—Sandro Botticelli. This pre-eminence may be due to chance only, but to some will rather appear a result of deliberate judgment; for people have begun to find out the charm of Botticelli's work, and his name, little known in the last century, is quietly becoming important.

In the middle of the Fifteenth Century he had already anticipated much of that meditative subtlety which is sometimes supposed peculiar to the great imaginative workmen of its close. Leaving the simple religion which had occupied the followers of Giotto for a century, and the simple naturalism which had grown out of it, a thing of birds and flowers only, he sought inspiration in what to him were works of the modern world, the writings of Dante and Boccaccio, and in new readings of his own of classical stories; or if he painted religious subjects, painted them with an undercurrent of original sentiment which touches you as the real matter of the picture through the veil of its ostensible subject. What is the peculiar sensation, what is the peculiar quality of pleasure which his work has the property of exciting in us, and which we cannot get elsewhere? For this, especially when he has to speak of a comparatively unknown artist, is always the chief question which a critic has to answer. In an age when the lives of artists were full of adventure, his life is almost colorless.

Criticism indeed has cleared away much of the gossip which Vasari accumulated, has touched the legend of Lippo and Lucrezia, and rehabilitated the character of Andrea del Castagno; but in Botticelli's case there is no legend to dissipate. He did not even go by his true name: Sandro is a nickname, and his true name is Filipepi, Botticelli being only the name of the goldsmith who first taught him art. Only two things happened to him, two things which he shared with other artists—he was invited to Rome to paint in the Sistine Chapel, and he fell in later life under the influence of Savonarola, passing apparently almost out of men's sight in a sort of religious melancholy which lasted till his death in 1515, according to the received date. Vasari says that he plunged into the study of Dante, and even wrote a comment on the Divine Comedy. But it seems strange that he should have lived on inactive so long; and one almost wishes that some document might come to light which, fixing the date of his death earlier, might relieve one, in thinking of him, of his dejected old age. The Birth of Venus. Botticelli.

He is before all things a poetical painter, blending the charm of story and sentiment, the medium of the art of poetry, with the charm of line and color, the medium of abstract painting. So he becomes the illustrator of Dante. In a few rare examples of the edition of 1481, the blank spaces left at the beginning of every canto for the hand of the illumination have been filled as far as the nineteenth canto of the Inferno, with impressions of engraved plates, seemingly by way of experiment, for in the copy in the Bodleian Library, one of the three impressions it contains has been printed upside down and much awry in the midst of the luxurious printed page. Giotto, and the followers of Giotto, with their almost childish religious aim, had not learned to put that weight of meaning into outward things, light, colour, every-day gesture, which the poetry of the Divine Comedy involves, and before the Fifteenth Century Dante could hardly have found an illustrator. Botticelli's illustrations are crowded with incident, blending with a naïve carelessness of pictorial propriety three phases of the same scene into one plate.

The grotesques, so often a stumbling-block to painters who forget that the words of a poet, which only feebly present an image to the mind, must be lowered in key when translated into form, make one regret that he has not rather chosen for illustration the more subdued imagery of the Purgatorio. Yet in the scene of those who go down quick into hell there is an invention about the fire taking hold on the up-turned soles of the feet, which proves that the design is no mere translation of Dante's words, but a true painter's vision; while the scene of the Centaurs wins one at once, for, forgetful of the actual circumstances of their appearance, Botticelli has gone off with delight on the thought of the Centaurs themselves, bright small creatures of the woodland, with arch baby faces and mignon forms, drawing tiny bows. Botticelli lived in a generation of naturalists, and he might have been a mere naturalist among them. There are traces enough in his work of that alert sense of outward things which, in the pictures of that period, fills the lawns with delicate living creatures, and the hill-sides with pools of water, and the pools of water with flowering reeds.

But this was not enough for him; he is a visionary painter, and in his visionariness he resembles Dante. Giotto, the tried companion of Dante, Masaccio, Ghirlandaio even, do but transcribe with more or less refining the outward image; they are dramatic, not visionary painters; they are almost impassive spectators of the action before them. But the genius of which Botticelli is the type usurps the data before it as the exponents of ideas, moods, visions of its own; with this interest it plays fast and loose with those data, rejecting some and isolating others, and always combining them anew. To him, as to Dante, the scene, the colour, the outward image or gesture, comes with all its incisive and importunate reality; but awakes in him, moreover, by some subtle structure of his own, a mood which it awakes in no one else, of which it is the double or repetition, and which it clothes, that all may share it, with sensuous circumstances.

But he is far enough from accepting the conventional orthodoxy of Dante which, referring all human action to the easy formula of purgatory, heaven, and hell, leaves an insoluble element of prose in the depths of Dante's poetry. One picture of his, with the portrait of the donor, Matteo Palmieri, below, had the credit or discredit of attracting some shadow of ecclesiastical censure. This Matteo Palmieri—two dim figures move under that name in contemporary history—was the reputed author of a poem, still unedited, La Città Divina, which represented the human race as an incarnation of those angels who, in the revolt of Lucifer, were neither for God nor for his enemies, a fantasy of that earlier Alexandrian philosophy, about which the Florentine intellect in that century was so curious. Botticelli's picture may have been only one of those familiar compositions in which religious reverie has recorded its impressions of the various forms of beatified existence—Glorias, as they were called, like that in which Giotto painted the portrait of Dante; but somehow it was suspected of embodying in a picture the wayward dream of Palmieri, and the chapel where it hung was closed.

Artists so entire as Botticelli are usually careless about philosophical theories, even when the philosopher is a Florentine of the Fifteenth Century, and his work a poem in terza rima. But Botticelli, who wrote a commentary on Dante and became the disciple of Savonarola, may well have let such theories come and go across him. True or false, the story interprets much of the peculiar sentiment with which he infuses his profane and sacred persons, comely, and in a certain sense like angels, but with a sense of displacement or loss about them—the wistfulness of exiles conscious of a passion and energy greater than any known issue of them explains, which runs through all his varied work with a sentiment of ineffable melancholy. So just what Dante scorns as unworthy alike of heaven and hell, Botticelli accepts, that middle world in which men take no side in great conflicts, and decide no great causes, and make great refusals. He thus sets for himself the limits within which art, undisturbed by any moral ambition, does its most sincere and surest work.

His interest is neither in the untempered goodness of Angelico's saints, nor the untempered evil of Orcagna's Inferno; but with men and women in their mixed and uncertain condition, always attractive, clothed sometimes by passion with a character of loveliness and energy, but saddened perpetually by the shadow upon them of the great things from which they shrink. His morality is all sympathy; and it is this sympathy, conveying into his work somewhat more than is usual of the true complexion of humanity, which makes him, visionary as he is, so forcible a realist. It is this which gives to his Madonnas their unique expression and charm. He has worked out in them a distinct and peculiar type, definite enough in his own mind, for he has painted it over and over again, sometimes one might think almost mechanically, as a pastime during that dark period when his thoughts were so heavy upon him. Hardly any collection of note is without one of these circular pictures, into which the attendant angels depress their heads so naïvely.

Perhaps you have sometimes wondered why those peevish-looking Madonnas, conformed to no acknowledged or obvious type of beauty, attract you more and more, and often come back to you when the Sistine Madonna and the virgins of Fra Angelico are forgotten. At first, contrasting them with those, you may have thought that there was even something in them mean or abject, for the abstract lines of the face have little nobleness and the colour is wan. For with Botticelli she too, though she holds in her hands the "Desire of all nations," is one of those who are neither for God nor for his enemies; and her choice is on her face. The white light on it is cast up hard and cheerless from below, as when snow lies upon the ground, and the children look up with surprise at the strange whiteness of the ceiling. Her trouble is in the very caress of the mysterious child, whose gaze is always far from her, and who has already that sweet look of devotion which men have never been able altogether to love, and which still makes the born saint an object almost of suspicion to his earthly brethren.

Once, indeed, he guides her hand to transcribe in a book the words of her exaltation, the Ave and the Magnificat, and the Gaude Maria, and the young angels, glad to rouse her for a moment from her dejection, are eager to hold the inkhorn and support the book; but the pen almost drops from her hand, and the high cold words have no meaning for her, and her true children are those others, in the midst of whom, in her rude home, the intolerable honour came to her, with that look of wistful inquiry on their irregular faces which you see in startled animals—gipsy children, such as those who, in Apennine villages, still hold out their long brown arms to beg of you, but on Sundays become enfants du chœur with their thick black hair nicely combed and fair white linen on their sunburnt throats.

What is strangest is that he carries this sentiment into classical subjects, its most complete expression being a picture in the Uffizi, of Venus rising from the sea, in which the grotesque emblems of the middle age, and a landscape full of its peculiar feeling, and even its strange draperies powdered all over in the Gothic manner with a quaint conceit of daisies, frame a figure that reminds you of the faultless nude studies of Ingres. At first, perhaps, you are attracted only by a quaintness of design, which seems to recall all at once whatever you have read of Florence in the Fifteenth Century; afterwards you may think that this quaintness must be incongruous with the subject, and that the colour is cadaverous, or at least cold. And yet the more you come to understand what imaginative colouring really is, that all colour is no mere delightful quality of natural things, but a spirit upon them by which they become expressive to the spirit, the better you will like this peculiar quality of colour; and you will find that quaint design of Botticelli's a more direct inlet into the Greek temper than the works of the Greeks themselves even of the finest period.

Of the Greeks as they really were, of their difference from ourselves, of the aspects of their outward life, we know far more than Botticelli, or his most learned contemporaries; but for us, long familiarity has taken off the edge of the lesson, and we are hardly conscious of what we owe to the Hellenic spirit. But in pictures like this of Botticelli's you have a record of the first impression made by it on minds turned back towards it in almost painful aspiration from a world in which it had been ignored so long; and in the passion, the energy, the industry of realization, with which Botticelli carries out his intention, is the exact measure of the legitimate influence over the human mind of the imaginative system of which this is the central myth. The light is, indeed, cold—mere sunless dawn; but a later painter would have cloyed you with sunshine; and you can see the better for that quietness in the morningair each long promontory as it slopes down to the water's edge.

Men go forth to their labours until the evening; but she is awake before them, and you might think that the sorrow in her face was at the thought of the whole long day of love yet to come. An emblematical figure of the wind blows hard across the grey water, moving forward the dainty-lipped shell on which she sails, the sea "showing his teeth" as it moves in thin lines of foam, and sucking in one by one the falling roses, each severe in outline, plucked off short at the stalk, but embrowned a little, as Botticelli's flowers always are. Botticelli meant all that imagery to be altogether pleasurable; and it was partly an incompleteness of resources, inseparable from the art of that time, that subdued and chilled it; but his predilection for minor tones counts also; and what is unmistakable is the sadness with which he has conceived the goddess of pleasure as the depository of a great power over the lives of men.

I have said that the peculiar character of Botticelli is the result of a blending in him of a sympathy for humanity in its uncertain condition, its attractiveness, its investiture at rarer moments in a character of loveliness and energy, with his consciousness of the shadow upon it of the great things from which it shrinks, and that this conveys into his work somewhat more than painting usually attains of the true complexion of humanity. He paints the story of the goddess of pleasure in other episodes besides that of her birth from the sea, but never without some shadow of death in the grey flesh and wan flowers. He paints Madonnas, but they shrink from the pressure of the divine child, and plead in unmistakable undertones for a warmer, lower humanity.

The same figure—tradition connects it with Simonetta, the mistress of Giuliano de' Medici—appears again as Judith returning home across the hill country when the great deed is over, and the moment of revulsion come, and the olive branch in her hand is becoming a burthen; as Justice, sitting on a throne, but with a fixed look of self-hatred which makes the sword in her hand seem that of a suicide; and again as Veritas in the allegorical picture of Calumnia, where one may note in passing the suggestiveness of an accident which identifies the image of Truth with the person of Venus. We might trace the same sentiment through his engravings; but his share in them is doubtful, and the object of this fragment has been attained if I have defined aright the temper in which he worked. But, after all, it may be asked, is a painter like Botticelli, a second-rate painter, a proper subject for general criticism?

There are a few great painters, like Michael Angelo or Leonardo, whose work has become a force in general culture, partly for this very reason that they have absorbed into themselves all such workmen as Sandro Botticelli; and, over and above mere technical or antiquarian criticism, general criticism may be very well employed in that sort of interpretation which adjusts the position of these men to general culture, whereas smaller men can be the proper subjects only of technical or antiquarian treatment. But, besides those great men, there is a certain number of artists who have a distinct faculty of their own by which they convey to us a peculiar quality of pleasure which we cannot get elsewhere, and these, too, have their place in general culture, and have to be interpreted to it by those who have felt their charm strongly, and are often the objects of a special diligence and a consideration wholly affectionate, just because there is not about them the stress of a great name and authority.

Of this select number Botticelli is one; he has the freshness, the uncertain and diffident promise which belongs to the earlier Renaissance itself, and makes it perhaps the most interesting period in the history of the mind; in studying his work one begins to understand to how great a place in human culture the art of Italy had been called. Studies in the History of the Renaissance (London, 1873). The Birth of Venus (Botticelli) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Birth of Venus (Botticelli) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation , search The Birth of Venus is a painting by Sandro Botticelli . This famous artwork hangs in the Uffizi gallery in Florence . It is tempera on canvas , measuring 172.5 cm tall by 278.5 cm wide. The painting the depicts the Goddess Venus emerging from the sea as a full grown woman, as described in Greek mythology . This large picture by Botticelli may have been, like the "Allegory of Spring", painted for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco 's Villa di Castello, around 1483 , or even before.

Some scholars suggest that the Venus painted for di Pierfrancesco and mentioned by Giorgio Vasari may have been a different, now lost, work than the painting in the Uffizi. Some experts believe it to be a celebration of the love of Giuliano di Piero de' Medici (who died in the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478) for Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci, who lived in Portovenere, a place by the sea. Whatever inspired the artist, there are clear similarities to Ovid 's "Metamorphosis" and "Fasti", as well as to Poliziano 's "Verses". Venus in detail The classical Goddess Venus is emerging from the water on a shell, being blown towards shore up the Zephyrs , symbols of spiritual passions, and with one of the Ores , goddesses of the seasons, who is handing her a flowered cloak . According to some commentators, the naked goddess isn't then a symbol of earthly but of spiritual love, like an ancient marble statue (which might have inspired the eighteenth century sculptor, Antonio Canova, by its candor), slim and long-limbed, with harmonious features.

The effect, none the less, is distinctly pagan considering it was made at a time and place when most artworks still depicted Roman Catholic themes. It is somewhat surprising that this canvas escaped the flames of Savonarola 's bonfires, where a number of Botticelli's other "pagan" influenced works perished. The anatomy of Venus and various subsidiary details do not display the strict classical realism of Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael . Most obviously, Venus has an improbably long neck, and her left shoulder slopes at an anatomically unlikely angle. Such details, whether artistic errors or artistic licence, do little to diminish the great beauty of the painting, and some have suggested it prefigures mannerism . [ edit ] Classical Inspiration The painting was one of a series which Botticelli was inspired to paint after written descriptions by the 2nd century historian Lucian of masterpieces of Ancient Greece which had long since disappeared by Botticelli's time. The ancient painting by Apelles was called Anadyomene Venus, "Anadyome" meaning "rising from the sea"; this title was also used for Botticelli's painting, "The Birth of Venus" only becoming its better known title in the 19th century .

The below mural from Pompeii was never seen by Botticelli, but may have been a Roman copy of the then famous painting by Apelles which Lucian mentioned. Mural at Pompeii In classical antiquity, the sea shell was a metaphor for a woman's vulva . The pose of Botticelli's Venus is reminiscent of the Venus de Medici, a marble sculpture from classical antiquity in the Medici collection which Botticelli had opportunity to study. [ edit ] Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" in Literature A subplot of Thomas Pynchon 's novel V. (1961) centers around an attempt to steal the painting from the Uffizi gallery in Florence . This occurs in chapter seven. Rafael Mantissa, an exile from Venezuela , is more or less in love with Venus . While some correctly argue that this is not your regular motif for stealing a painting, this is all part of one of the important bottomlines of the novel: the paradoxical relation of men to Woman. Men are attracted to Her, but at the same time destroyed.

However, all of this is perceived by one of the characters, Herbert Stencil, in his attempt to come to terms with Loss through historical imagination and historiography - the famous 'historical chapters' in V. . [ edit ] Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" in Popular Culture Reproductions and variations on Botticelli's famous painting have been numerous in popular culture , including in advertising and motion pictures : Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance . Renaissance . Botticelli | PBS Born to a poor tanner in the backstreets of Florence, Alessandro Filipepi was brought up by his brother who gave him the nickname botticelli, meaning “little barrel”. The name stuck, and Botticelli's art became the most intelligent, creative and recognizable voice of the Florentine Renaissance. Only five years older than Lorenzo de'Medici, by the late 1460s Botticelli had made a name for himself under the apprenticeship of Filippo Lippi, an infamous Medici artist. The teenager was originally spotted by Piero il Gottoso and offered his own studio space inside the Medici Palace.

He quickly befriended the charismatic heirs to the dynasty, Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano. Such intimacy with the most powerful family in Florence was critical to Botticelli's career. He didn't need to depend on his Medici friends for work. Their extended family and hangers-on fell over themselves to keep him busy. The most notorious example was the tax collector Guasparre dal Lama who, in an effort to impress the Medici, asked Botticelli to compose an “Adoration of the Magi”. The Medici had always fancied themselves as latter-day Magi, even sponsoring a city society to parade through the streets in celebration of the three wise men. The artist Gozzoli had already inserted the family into a “Procession of the Magi”, painted triumphantly in their private chapel. Now, Botticelli placed them right at the heart of the Nativity itself. Botticelli's painting celebrated Cosimo il Vecchio, Piero il Gottoso, Giuliano de'Medici and his brother Lorenzo, all gathered around the Holy Family. Surrounding them, were their closest friends and allies, scholars, politicians and businessmen. And, like Gozzoli's tribute, the painting also featured a self-portrait.

Botticelli, staring arrogantly out at the viewer, placed himself inside the family's circle of friends. He was making a powerful statement to the world, and in a city as volatile as Florence, an alliance with the right family was crucial. Botticelli made his living, like any other artist, painting religious scenes, although his interest was far removed from Jesus. Behind the walls of the Medici Palace Botticelli listened to philosophical debates and classical legends, discussed amongst Lorenzo's intellectual friends. Botticelli was inspired, and under the protection of the Medici, he created an entirely new genre of art. Click on the image for a gallery view “ La Primavera” was neither portrait, icon nor holy celebration. It was pure fantasy, inspired by poetry, and fueled by a vivid imagination. This much-analyzed painting shows Venus, ancient goddess of beauty and fertility, celebrating the arrival of Spring, la Primavera. She is surrounded by allegorical figures representing the virtues and gods of the ancient world. It was a subject guaranteed to please Botticelli's protector, and no detail was overlooked.

Even the laurel bushes behind Venus served to represent the rebirth of a golden age, under the patronage of Laurentius - Lorenzo - de'Medici. With such a sophisticated understanding of his friends' arcane ideas, Botticelli had successfully developed his own form of visual poetry, peppered with symbolism and private jokes. Inspired by Lorenzo's own classical sculptures, Botticelli later took his radical style to a new extreme, with a wedding present for Lorenzo's cousin, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de'Medici. Click on the image for a gallery view The “Birth of Venus” was unlike any other painting of its time. Designed to be hung above the marital bed, it was a daring celebration of human desire. The painting was so controversial it was kept behind closed doors for half a century. Although Botticelli remained close to Lorenzo and was one of the friends who maintained a vigil at his death bed in 1492, Botticelli's own brother had become a disciple of the fiery Savonarola. After Lorenzo's death even Botticelli was swept along by religious fervor.

His later paintings, such as the “Lamentation over the Dead Christ” reflected the apocalyptic themes of the sermons of Savonarola. Botticelli, fearing for his own everlasting salvation, even went so far as to hurl some of his own paintings onto the Bonfires of the Vanities. No one will ever know what masterpieces of the Renaisssance may have been lost forever to such zealous fundamentalism.

Question: The Birth of Venus by Botticelli hangs in an art gallery in which city?
Answer: Florence